Transcript
Liz Tran (0:05)
Know that your value and your expertise as an investor will definitely change and that there needs to be a letting go of the rigidity of how you see yourself. Where, like, oh, I only, you know, look at X type of market or X type of company, or this is where my sweet spot is. Let all of that go and think from a first principles perspective of where it is that you want to take your expertise. Like, don't let the past dictate where you're gonna go in the future.
Matt Grier (0:38)
That was Liz Tran, author of A New Kind of Intelligence for a World that's Always Changing. I'm Motley fool producer Matt Grier. Motley fool contributor Rachel Warren recently talked with Tran about that new kind of intelligence and about investing in a world that, yes, is always changing.
Rachel Warren (0:59)
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Motley Fool Conversations. I'm Motley fool analyst Rachel Warren, and today I'm excited to welcome Liz Tran to the show. Liz is the founder of Inner Genius and a leadership coach to CEOs and founders of some of the world's fastest growing companies. She's worked with companies like Facebook, Instagram, and the Ford foundation, and her transformative work has been featured by publications including the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Today Show, Bloomberg Entrepreneur, Fast Company, and other publications. She brings engaging interactive workshops to startups and Fortune 500 companies, speaking to employees about how to avoid burnout, build unshakable confidence, and unleash their inner genius. Liz is also an expert on unlocking employee potential in the modern workplace and redefining what it means to be an exceptional leader. She is the author of the Karma of Success and the newly released book, A New Kind of Intelligence for a World that's Always Changing. Liz, welcome to the show.
Liz Tran (1:55)
Thanks for having me, Rachel.
Rachel Warren (1:57)
So excited to speak with you today. And I want to start off the conversation by talking about your new book, aq A New Kind of Intelligence for a World that's Always Changing. Now, in your book and in conversations I've seen about it, you assert that IQ was the product of industrialization. EQ emerged from globalization. Aq, short for the agility quotient, is the intelligence born of the tech revolution. So I'd love if you could tell us about your book and its core themes and why it's relevant not just for leaders, but also for investors. In today's market, it is so important
Liz Tran (2:31)
for us to understand the actual rubric by which we are going to be evaluated for our success and happiness in life. And the idea for AQ actually came to me about 10 years ago, when I was working in venture capital. So I was an executive at a firm called Thrive here in New York City. For those of you who follow venture fund news, Thrive just raised their 10th fund of $10 billion. But when I started there, we were fewer than 10 people and we were really just starting to begin to understand what made investors and also company leaders successful. Big project I embarked on was to interview our most successful founders, the ones who had exited or pulled off really great M and A for their companies. And I gave them personality tests. I had long interviews with them, and at the end I could not identify any commonalities they had, except that they were always changing. They had high aq, which is what I call the agility quotient. It's your capacity to handle change, uncertainty, and the unknown. I kind of left that there 10 years ago. And then as the pandemic occurred, I started noticing that even people who had really high IQ or EQ were struggling during this time of tremendous uncertainty and change. And then finally about two years ago, when I became a parent myself and started to think about what it was and why I was struggling with this big transition in life. And also there are larger micro macro changes happening in the world at that moment. And I just realized, you know what, this definition of success that we've all been given around, you know, do well in school, do well on standardized tests, follow sort of what has been prescribed to you through a blueprint that's not working for anyone anymore. And that's especially true for investors who make up a big part of the clientele who I coach, meaning I speak to them on a weekly or bi weekly basis for years to get them to reach their greatest potential as investors.
